The demo was fantastic, this looks like it's going to be one of my fave games of the year. i thought it would be a silly linear story-thing like The Run, but even though there does seem to be a story (which is not needed i think), it's more like Hot Pursuit in that you get an entire region to freely drive around, choose events etc. PLUS it's got the Forza sheen (better graphics than F3 by far), PLUS the car collection, PLLLLLLLUUUUUSSS the fun and madness of PGR!!! Yes, Project Gotham has been revided! balloons and confetti when you finish a race? check. Points for pretty much anything you do? Check. ok, so they're not Kudos, but they're still points!

This looks amazing! This gaming season has from lame to awesome in like a month, it makes last year look pale in comparison.

Yes, Project Gotham has been revided! balloons and confetti when you finish a race? check. Points for pretty much anything you do? Check. ok, so they're not Kudos, but they're still points!

I wouldn't personally go as far as saying this is the revival of PGR, as in the demo, I didn't think it played like PGR. To me, it felt more like the gameplay of Test Drive Unlimited mixed with the theatrics of DiRT 2 (or Need for Speed ProStreet).

Definitely looking forward to this game, got my MS Wireless Racing Wheel waiting in my basement for it in fact. I prefer a tad more arcadey racer myself, do not like the super realistic ones all that much, so think I will dig this even more than previously.

I guess I'm the only one who found the demo boring. Car handling was awful, engine sounds were dull, music/voiceovers are terrible, and they don't even use controller vibration over dirt terrain. Overall it was a pretty lifeless experience, I wasn't drawn in at all.

I would give it some plus points for the graphics, but when everything is brown, it's difficult to justify.

I actually love the IQ on this game, whatever AA / smoothing their usng is ridiculously good - it's got to be the smoothest and cleanest console game I've ever come across. Easily better than Forza 4 as well. Makes me wonder what kinda of ridiculousness the Polygon reviewer was talking about when he derided Horizon's graphics.

On the topic of car handling, I didn't find it any more different than Forza, with most of the assists turned off. And the brown... well, the demo only shows a brown area of the map. It does include cities and forests and other more colourful areas in the actual game

I guess I'm the only one who found the demo boring. Car handling was awful, engine sounds were dull, music/voiceovers are terrible, and they don't even use controller vibration over dirt terrain. Overall it was a pretty lifeless experience, I wasn't drawn in at all.

I would give it some plus points for the graphics, but when everything is brown, it's difficult to justify.

Yeah, I wasn't too into it either. I only played it for about 15 minutes, so can't really give a detailed opinion until I try it again (maybe tonight), but what peeved me the most is that it's another step backwards in the series in terms of framerate. I can't remember what the framerate in the original Forza was, but I know that Forza 2 was 60FPS with 30FPS replays, Forza 3 was the same as Forza 2, Forza 4 was the same again, but for some bizarre reason, when playing in the cockpit view, the rear-view mirror is 30FPS, and now Forza Horizon is completely 30FPS. That really takes a lot away from the experience for me. There's no real sense of speed like in the previous games (and the Gran Turismo games, and pretty much any PC sim around); they've tried to compensate by going down the EA route with the Need for Speed/SHIFT games of recent years: motion blur and shaky cameras, but that just doesn't work.

Yeah, I wasn't too into it either. I only played it for about 15 minutes, so can't really give a detailed opinion until I try it again (maybe tonight), but what peeved me the most is that it's another step backwards in the series in terms of framerate. I can't remember what the framerate in the original Forza was, but I know that Forza 2 was 60FPS with 30FPS replays, Forza 3 was the same as Forza 2, Forza 4 was the same again, but for some bizarre reason, when playing in the cockpit view, the rear-view mirror is 30FPS, and now Forza Horizon is completely 30FPS. That really takes a lot away from the experience for me. There's no real sense of speed like in the previous games (and the Gran Turismo games, and pretty much any PC sim around); they've tried to compensate by going down the EA route with the Need for Speed/SHIFT games of recent years: motion blur and shaky cameras, but that just doesn't work.

30 or 60 doesn't affect the feel of speed. in any case the reason for dropping it to 30 is simple. it's not a sim, it's an while not fully arcade, it's more arcadey and as the title suggest, more of a PGR game focused on graphics and fun.

This game is a conglomerate of sorts to all the previous top-selling racing games with their specific 'awesome' factors rolled into one, including micro-transactions. Its enough sim to be hard and enough arcade to be fun. Its a nice upgrade to the forza series which holds its clean sim but enough extras to be fun without ruining it or going overboard.